The Virtues of Pegasus
by Heelo
Summary: An Encounter with the Wraith leaves a fresh team hurtling deep into space where they find the Virtue, a battleship built by the Ancients and its still crewed. By a crew set upon vengeance for the war with the Wraith and theres no way off the ship!
1. Chapter 1

"I could see the bright flashes of colour that went up as each of our 302s exploded. Although I had not directly encountered Anubis in any of my offworld activities, I had heard enough to know to fear the half-ascended being. He was the most powerful of all the Goa'uld and he had a fleet parked in orbit around Earth. SG-1 were our last hope, I knew that, I understood that, but even knowing that I was afraid.

I was aboard the Prometheus, the X-303, the advanced flagship of Earths defences. General Hammond was sitting in the commander's chair, he was determined that SG-1 would be defended no matter the cost. They were hanging in a Goa'uld cargo vessel over the ice.

The Goa'uld bombers were pounding at our shields, one was just evading my gunnery shots, Come on, I thought I can do this. I looked at the targeting sensor and took my aim, a few hundred metres in front of the small, agile bomber and fired. My face sunk as I saw the shot miss. It nearly hit the floor when I saw the Alkesh swing about. It turned and fired. In front of me the bulkhead exploded sending a vicious array of sparks inwards, I felt the heat but it wasn't the heat that scared me. It was the bomber coming around for its second pass.

The gunnery controls were all but destroyed and our shields were failing. Lunging forwards I managed to grab the targeting stick. I turned it and fired. It intercepted the bomber and I saw it go up in a bright display of fire. Smiling I began to check in my head that everyone was okay. I could see General Hammond, he had a grim look on his face, he was going to have to make an order that could mean 100 casualties.

"Give me ramming speed" He ordered the helmsman, "Take us right at his ship". I gulped, loudly. I knew Hammond had heard as he turned to look at me. I felt ashamed once more, I returned to what was left of my post as we hurtled towards the mothership.

Suddenly there were more bright flashes from directly below us, more explosions? No, it was something else, but what?

We had achieved maximum speed by the time we had cleared the atmosphere and ahead of me I could see the dark hull of Anubis's mothership. The ship began to shake, Some kind of Tractor beam? No it couldn't be, we were still moving. Weapons fire? No, without our shields one hit would kill us. Unsure I began to fire the forward batteries towards the ever growing in size mothership. I saw the explosions, the ship began to explode! It couldn't be me so I looked again, there were bright orange drones heading at the enemy targets.

Without hesitation General Hammond ordered us to turn around and we returned to the safety of the surface." I said to the enquiring lieutenant.

"So how'd you end up on the Daeadalus?" he asked  
"For my good work I was promoted and given a chance to come and serve here, on Atlantis, the lost city, how could I refuse an offer like that?" I replied. I hope he doesn't ask anything else, I find the new engines make me feel sick I told myself. To my relief the young man turned and left my cabin.

I slowly allowed myself to drift off to sleep, only a matter of hours away from Atlantis and the wonders, and horrors; that I would discover there.

A few hours later I found myself rudely awakened by the sound of the alarms, we were about to exit hyperspace. We had all read the mission report and we all knew, knew that when we arrived there would be 3 Wraith Hive-ships waiting for us. Quickly I changed and reported to my post, since the battle in Antarctica I had been given many new jobs but my latest was by far the strangest yet.

I was given the post of watching Hermoid; Hermoid was an Asgard, a friend of humanity but unlike Thor, Hermoid scared people. They could never tell how he would react to different situations. Even so we needed to learn the ropes of using the Asgard technologies we had been supplied and this seemed the easiest way.

Oh my God I thought as I heard Colonel Caldwell's voice coming through the intercom. Oh my God I thought as I hear the news, we were exiting hyperspace in less than 2 minutes, entering a battle zone where we would be vastly out numbered and out gunned.

The jolt was sudden and lasted only a few seconds as we returned to normal space. We were now only 10 minutes from Atlantis and our sensors surveyed the battle zone. There were only 2, 1 of the hive-ships was missing. Destroyed? No it couldn't be I thought to myself.

Suddenly an unfamiliar voice came through the ships radio. It was a woman's voice and she was addressing a Major John Shepperd. It seemed that the Major was on his way to what they referred to as a Puddle Jumper. He was on a suicide mission to one of the two hive-ships.

As we drew closer the light from the Wraith weapons became a constant blur. We were blinded, we could see only using sensors. I looked over Hermoid's shoulder and viewed the console. He appeared to be performing last minute checks on the ZPM powered systems now it had been removed.

The tense atmosphere was almost unbearable as we stood waiting. I felt a strange sense, a cross between boredom and incredible fear. The only thing that broke my mood was Novak, I couldn't stand the woman especially when, like now, she powered in shouting orders.

I began to use the targeting scanners, following her orders, to lock onto a specific lifesign in a ship that hadn't appeared yet. Suddenly I saw it, the new dot on the radar; that had to be it; the puddle jumper carrying John Shepperd.

I locked on and hit the beam button. Shepperd was transported directly to the bridge and the Hive-Ship was blown to hell. I smiled and went to perform my second duty of the day.

The briefing room was very large for the normal garrison of troops but we were carrying more than usual. In fact the ship contained a small army of troops. I was commanding a wave of them in the attempt to rid Atlantis of any Wraith that successfully entered the city.

We all gathered our supplies and equipment; we didn't even see the second Hive-Ship go up. However we did see the Darts; quickly they had turned and were now on a ballistic collision course with Atlantis.

Our fighters tried to intercept but weren't in any way fast enough, they thundered towards the city, it couldn't all be for nothing! Could it? We saw the explosions when they impacted. The see of flame cleared quickly and it was still there, Mckay had managed to successfully raise the cities shield.

We were beamed down into the city soon after, we had to find the Wraith who were left in the city.

The corridors were long and all seemed to echo. We heard every time a group found and dispatched a Wraith. Luckily I hadn't seen any of the fearsome creatures yet. We were more relaxed now. That was our first mistake.

We sloppily turned the corner and didn't see it coming. The scream let out by the rest of my team was blood curdling. I turned back and ran as fast as I could. 

My team had been taken.

I knew they were still in the city, they had to be. But they were not going to be found easily. I needed back-up. But I was afraid to ask, afraid to admit that we had messed up, afraid to admit that I had messed up but most of all afraid to admit that I had left them. I had only one option.

I had to go myself.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	2. Chapter 2

Part 2 

The sound of screaming wasn't far; the Wraith obviously didn't take them a long way from their original position.  
Checking my weapon, I turned the first corner; there were no signs of the Wraith. Same for the second and the third but at the fourth turn the screams were close, deafeningly close.

I pointed the gun straight as I walked into what could only be described as a nest. I saw the first of my troops. His chest was bloody and his face was wrinkled. He looked old.

I knew now that none of the reports were exaggerated, these Wraith could really suck the life out of living beings, age you.

Slowly I walked into the room, slumped in a corner was another of the soldiers assigned to me, he was still alive but again looked older. He also had the signature hole in his chest.

I saw a blur move in front of me, was it one of the shadows the Wraith could project or was it an actual Wraith? Just over my shoulder a shot from a Wraith stunner struck the wall. I turned and fired in the direction of the shot. I heard the Wraith scream. I knew at least one shot had hit its mark. I saw the Wraith collapse to the floor and I grabbed the two survivors and hurriedly lifted them out of the room.

As I left I turned to throw in a grenade to ensure the Wraith was killed but when I looked it was gone. Curiously I walked towards the only other way out; a balcony high in the city.

As I walked out I noticed more dead Wraith and some badly burnt soldiers and a bent pier. I looked over and there were no signs of the Wraith that had fled. I began to suspect that one of the corpses wasn't as dead as I thought.

My suspicions were confirmed as the Wraith closest to me jumped at me. I fired twice and moved out of the way. I saw the beast fall towards the vast deep blue sea and I laughed. I had done it! I had successfully taken on a Wraith on my own!

My radio buzzed, someone was trying to contact me, I lifted the small black object to my head height and spoke into it, "I'm fine, I have dispatched a Wraith but there are two dead teams here on the pier.", "Thank you Major we'll dispatch a cleanup crew as soon as possible" came Shepperd's voice through the Radio. I smiled and collapsed to the floor. They'd just have to kill the rest without me.

38 Days Later

Today was the day the Daedalus was due back, due back to the mystical city we saved from destruction at the hands of twelve hive ships. They had adapted to our transportation technology and ten of them survived our attack plan and made it here. We survived through the use of a Puddle Jumpers cloaking device used with the shield generators to gather a big enough field to cloak the whole city. Since then they left us alone, left us to search for our missing man; Lieutenant Aiden Ford.

Ford had become some kind of superhuman after having a Wraith enzyme released quickly into his system. It had made him faster and stronger but it had made him irrational. He stole a Puddle Jumper and fled Atlantis to acquire more of the enzyme.

We had been searching for him since. However, Major Shepperd and Doctor Weir along with most of the senior staff had gone back to Earth through the gate and hand-picked the new members of the expedition.

I was waiting to look for a particular name, a singular name on a list of thousands, Mark Davies. Would he be there? I hoped so; he was my best friend my whole life and he was at the SGC whilst I was on the Prometheus. He had all the qualifications needed and had clearance already; he had to be on the Daedalus on the way back.

I walked to what we had now designated the mess and got something to eat, the mainland provided all of our main food needs but I found myself craving Ice Cream, there was no Ice Cream anywhere on Atlantis. It made sense, there were no cows on the mainland but it was the one thing I missed, again one thing amongst thousands.

As I grabbed what I assumed was a meat dish the base alarm sounded. The Daedalus had entered the system. Or at least we hoped it was the Daedalus; our sensors picked up the blip, it was late already, they should have contacted us by now. I began to panic, what if it wasn't the Daedalus what if the Wraith found us again. We couldn't hold out and our old tactic wouldn't work!

Quickly I ran to the radio and hit the transmitter, "Unidentified craft please identify yourself!" I shakily requested. There was no reply. I panicked even more, I knew that the city shield could protect us but for how long?

I hit the alarm and everyone ran to their posts. I walked to the nearest Balcony and looked upwards, I saw it enter the atmosphere and flinched, what was it? It was just beyond our view.

Suddenly it swung under the atmosphere and I saw the familiar shape of the Daedalus heading into the east pier.

I ordered a full security team to the pier; I knew something was going on, why didn't they answer? They were in range, I feared the Wraith had got to them and I sped up towards the nearest transporter.

I hit the pier and immediately the door opened onto the amazing view of the Daedalus landing. The teams were already here, ready to face whatever came out of the ship.

The relief was apparent on our faces as we saw three marines leave the ship followed by Shepperd and Weir. They explained that their communications had to be destroyed to get rid of some freaky wraith virus.

I was so happy to see them; the smile couldn't have been cut off my face. They were back and they had brought an army of extra people. From doctors to soldiers you name it they were on the ship. I ran to the door and watched the people come out; it was amazing to behold; the foremost experts from each country coming out of a singular ship, still I waited. No sign of Mark anywhere. I stood for almost an hour before I saw him.

He had taken the job! I was so happy to see him, to talk to him again; I needed to catch up on what was going on at home. Smiling he walked towards me. I will never forget that moment. I no longer felt so alone on Atlantis; I had made no friends since arriving. It wasn't easy, I was a commander of a team, it was my job to be tough and it was their job not to complain about me. But that didn't make them like me. Luckily I now had a friendly face to talk to. I hadn't just talked with someone since the fresh young man on the Daedalus. 

TO BE CONTINUED...


	3. Chapter 3

Part 3 

The Next Day

It had been a month, a month of new experiences and challenges; I had been on 3 offworld missions and had encountered alien species on 2 of the three excursions, I was glad to see that I would now have a familiar face on my team, after our catch up last night we had gone to see the newly promoted Lieutenant Colonel Shepperd.

He had assigned me a team and I was requesting Marks transfer to our group, Shepperd agreed and now we were planning for our next mission.

We were taking a Puddle Jumper through the gate to look for Ford; we knew he would be near the Wraith. He would most likely be shaking things up so we had to keep our guard up. We had grabbed enough ordinance to fight a long term war. I couldn't help but wonder, how dangerous could this one man be?

I sat in the pilots chair and the jumper started up, that never grew old. It was a mystical machine; it could sense the pilot's thoughts and respond to them. Mark activated the gate and I powered us through. We came out in orbit of a large blue planet. I turned the ship and headed into the atmosphere. At high speed we flew towards the ground there was snow all over it. I pulled up and we levelled out.

The sensors came on, I didn't think about them but they came on. Something triggered them; there was a large red dot on the screen and it was close. Very close.

I turned the ship to retreat but as I did 3 more dots appeared, smaller but still red and still coming towards us. The ship shook as each shot impacted on the hull.

I flashed back, I saw the Prometheus, I could feel the bumps, I could see the sparks and I could see the ships flanking us.

Mark snapped me out of it and I managed to manoeuvre, the first of the ships flew in front of us, I thought about shooting and three drones fired and locked onto their target, it went up in a blast of flame. The inferno fell to the ground and the dot disappeared from the radar.

The explosions inside the ship were getting worse. We couldn't take much more of this. I pulled up and flew towards space, still followed by two darts. One came alongside us and I knew it was almost in sight. I waited until it came into view and launched two more of the brightly coloured drones.

The second Dart went into flames and crashed into the side of our jumper. It damaged us badly, the shock blew out the console behind us and a marine standing there received an explosion in his face.

We shot out of the blackness of space. I saw the dart coming even with us. Was it trying to shoot us or was it hoping to blow us up by hitting us.

I looked at my radar. There were 6 more dots closing in fast, I gulped and looked back to the burnt marine. The fourth member of my team was there with him. She was also a marine but luckily had basic medical training with Atlantian equipment.

"We need to go faster!" Mark screamed in my ear, "I'm trying!" I replied. I thought about speeding up, going faster and we shot forward at immense speed. The dots disappeared quickly and we shot out into the unknown.

3 Hours Later

The ship ground to a halt and sped out of control, we had no idea where we were but there was a massive dot on the radar. This time however, it was blue. We were almost in flames; I had to bring us down so I headed for the dot.

As we drew close to the dot I could see the ship. It was a massive ship. It looked alive, still powered up. Could it be ancient? I hoped it was friendly.

We flew messily into the landing bay and were somehow immediately stopped. Eerily the back door lowered and the light shone in. I grabbed my weapon and lifted it; I walked to the door and looked out. There was a massive bay and I could see straight into space. There was some sort of force field there, preventing explosive decompression. I sighed and called out Mark and the marine, whose name was Sara, the other man was dead. The blast had burned through his skull and he had died an immensely painful death.

We stepped onto the ship and walked towards the door. It was shut and we had no idea of what to expect on the other side.

As we drew near the door opened. "Automatic doors... Well we know they are advanced now" Mark joked. None of us smiled, we were too worried. The corridor was immaculate. This ship seemed brand new. Almost like it had been just built and left here.

The corridor was empty, the ship seemed alive but the rooms were all barren, devoid of all life.

Once we all reached the corridor a massive flash appeared from the walls and we all collapsed.

When we woke up we were in some kind of cell. "Automated defences?" Sara asked, "I sure hope not" I said "Otherwise we are going to die in here".

To my relief the door opened and a man walked in, he was human and seemed to be too advanced to be from a culled world. "Oh good" he said "You're awake; the Commander has some questions for you. Please follow me" The cell opened and we walked out. We left the prison and went back into a corridor, now the corridor was teeming with life, full of crew members, walking to their next task. It was more comfortable like this.

We entered a room at what must have been the top of the ship and saw a man standing at a window. He was clearly of more importance than the others; he was wearing a much more official looking uniform and had a much more commanding feel to him.

"Welcome to the Battleship Virtue" the commander said "My name is Lucas Regis"   
"Lucas Regis?" Sara enquired  
"Yes"  
"That's Latin sir" she told me "It means royal bringer of light"  
Latin I thought, this just keeps getting more and more interesting. Could they really be living ancients? I hoped they were, the ancients were peaceful pacifists, they' surely take us back to Atlantis.  
"Where did you find that ship?" he demanded  
"In the city of Atlantis" I replied  
"Atlantis?" he questioned "I was under the impression that the great city had been destroyed by the Wraith, when we returned there it was gone"  
"You are ancients" I said  
"Ancients? We have been known by that name. Long ago our people were under attack by the Wraith, I assumed Atlantis was another casualty."  
"No, your people sank it to the ocean floor." Mark told him  
"Is it still inhabited by Alterans today?"  
"Alterans?" I asked  
"That is the original name of our species" he informed us  
"I am afraid not, they all left and went back to Earth. We came from Earth in search of you."  
He looked puzzled by this information but allowed us to leave, he told us we could stay on the ship but we could never be returned to Atlantis. The ship was on a mission. A mission set off by hatred and the belief that the Wraith had destroyed the Alterans completely.

The Virtue was trying to destroy all of the Wraith. It had a full crew compliment and full stock of weaponry. They took the jumper in for repairs and activated some form of engine and we shot off. We shot off deeper into Wraith territory.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	4. Chapter 4

Part 4

I couldn't believe it. We had met real ancients, we had travelled all the way to another galaxy to find them and it was us, my team that made the discovery. Even greater was the fact that these Alterans were openly attacking the Wraith.

If only we could convince the commander to order the Virtue to Atlantis. To bring the most advanced and definitely the strongest ship we had ever encountered. The crew seemed friendly but they seemed unable to simply talk, I began to wonder if this is how all the ancients interacted. I laughed as I considered Atlantis full, yet quiet.

The room given to me was large, it had what I assumed was some kid of advanced bathroom and a small kitchen area. It was luxurious compared to the Daedalus. There was also a large long window that allowed you to see out into space.

The ship was impressive, it was obviously a battleship but I wondered, was it the last ship or was it one of a fleet.

I was asked to come to a tactical briefing for some reason by Lucas, there were only two possible reasons for this in my opinion. Either he wanted to know about Atlantis or he wanted to keep me close.

I walked towards the light blue door and as I got there it opened. This ship sure did take some getting used to. I loved the fact that we were treated like royalty by a machine. There were no servants but the ship seemed to sense what we wanted and it would then try its best to provide.

The ancients looked so similar to us, it was uncanny to think they were a much older species and we were actually not from the same evolution as them. We were the second evolution of our form.

I got to the briefing room early; only the commander was there, he seemed glad I got there early. He seemed eager to tell me something and he did. He told me everything.

The siege of Atlantis was non-stop; they had managed to get a small fleet away from the city on a desperate mission. They had been sent to negotiate with the nightmarish Wraith. The fleet was massive. There was one visible battleship; the rest of the fleet was cloaked. After about a day it became clear that the Wraith had not taken well to the diplomats and had most likely fed upon them. The dead ship was left in orbit of the planet dead with the shields down. We couldn't allow it to fall into Wraith hands so Lucas ordered the fleet to de-cloak and destroy the sitting ship.

They managed to destroy the ship but took massive casualties, most of the Battleships were too damaged to get away and they fled into the Puddle Jumpers and other small ships that we had not seen on Atlantis and set the self-destructs. The Virtue was the only fully operational battleship when we got out of the situation and the cloak was damaged.

They activated their most powerful engines, at this point I realised that must have been what had kicked in on the Puddle Jumper above the Wraith planet, and they shot across the galaxy. Afraid to jump back to Atlantis the fleet waited on a barren planet whilst they conducted all of their repairs. What was left of the fleet began to start their journey to a certain hidden Alteran base. The Virtue had been off on a supply pick-up and we were returning to the fleet.

The fleet now consisted of two battleships, 6 cruisers and dozens of Puddle Jumpers on each of the larger ships. Our Puddle Jumper was currently being repaired, once it had been we were free to leave whenever we wanted. Lucas told us we were welcome to stay with the fleet as long as we wanted, this was the reason he wanted me at the briefing.

Everyone else soon arrived at the briefing room; Lucas activated a 3-D overhead map and explained his plan. We were now only a few stops away from the other city; we needed to stop for supplies every so often and there would be three more jumps before we reached it.

This seemed safe enough, I still hoped to convince them to go to Atlantis but this city may have spare ZPMs. If we returned to Atlantis with three more, full ZPMs, Atlantis would be re-powered for years

Lucas then told us the difficult part. We had limited possible stop points, all of them deep inside Wraith territory. It wouldn't be easy. We could cloak until we found the supplies. But then we would have to raise the shields and get out of there as soon as the supplies had been transported.

The Wraith would be able to get at least 5 Hive-Ships to our position within the 15 minutes it would take to supply all of the ships. The fleet was in no condition to fight, we needed every pilot to fly supplies. I realised now that Lucas expected my team to collect and fly supplies in our jumper.

I was happy with this as I knew we were already too deep into the Wraith controlled space to attempt to take our Jumper through.

We were going into Wraith space. Deep into Wraith space.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	5. Chapter 5

Part 5

The speed we were travelling at was incredible, yet I felt nothing. The power requirements must have been massive, the ship was massive, I only hoped the same could be said for its shields and weapons. We would be putting them to the test. We were now only a few minutes from the ancient fleet. The singular strongest fleet left in the galaxy.

I felt the need to inform my team; Sara and Mark would need to know what was going on. They needed to understand the danger and as a team we would have to choose our path. Personally I hoped that they would stay with Lucas, stay with the Virtue through their perilous journey.

I found them both quickly; they were in our, now fixed, jumper. They seemed relaxed and happy, blissfully unaware of our treacherous journey. I didn't feel like I could leave them in the dark. Not after all we were going to go through in the next few days.

I explained our situation. The looks on their faces clearly showed confusion, or was it fear? I myself was scared of the uncertain journey we were about to make. Into the Wraith controlled space. Although I was sure they were worried and unsure they agreed on one path. We were going to stay with Lucas. Stay through the uncertainty of what was to come.

I had to tell Lucas, I had to deliver the verdict, we had agreed to stay unanimously.

He seemed happy when I told him and he delivered his own good news. We had successfully found the fleet. They were in orbit of a small moon. Unfortunately we had been unable to successfully contact them.

I was worried now, could the fleet have run into trouble? I sure hoped not, without them we had very little chance of making it through the journey.

We dropped out of hyperspace and saw the fleet. They were definitely there but still they didn't respond in any way to our communication attempt.

Lucas was just as worried as I was, he wasn't sure what to do. I had a bad feeling about this but I agreed on something with him, something that meant I had definitely gone insane. I agreed to ring over to one of the cruisers and investigate.

Mark and Sara geared up with the weapons that the Alterans supplied us. They were very powerful and supremely effective. I liked the bonuses that came with serving on an ancient battleship.

We stepped onto the rings and we were beamed in.

The lighting was dark and the corridors were empty, there was certainly no one here; the ship was ghostly. It was like being back on the Virtue the first time. Scarily though this time there was something else.

As I stepped into the corridor I immediately realised that we had made a mistake coming on board. "Get back to the rings!" I screamed to my team and we started running, I activated the rings and we got back to the Virtue.

"Get us the hell out of here!" I shouted to Lucas.

"What is going on?" he demanded.

"The fleet is gone, they were found and all those ships have now are corpses and Wraith."

"We can't leave" Lucas said "They have the other battleship"

"Does the ship have a self-destruct?" asked Sara

"Yes, it has a five minute countdown though, we can't set it off from here"

"Does it have rings?" Mark enquired

"Yes but you can't be suggesting we try to take back a battleship from the Wraith?"

"No" I said "but I have an idea"

We found ourselves kitting up once again; ready for yet another mission. Our plan was perfect. The Virtue cloaked and launched a Jumper. It flew towards the fleet and the cruiser group came to life, it turned and sped up, it was going after the jumper. The jumper turned and also sped up. I watched it from the jumper. The other one, the cloaked one. We flew directly over the ship and activated the rings.

We beamed in leaving the jumper cloaked and set about working our way to the self destruct. The ship was full of Wraith, I could hear them in the corridor and they showed up on our lifesigns detector. We split up and set off through the crawl spaces, we had split up hoping to sabotage the ship, causing enough trouble to allow Sara into the destruct bay.

Mark headed down the main passageway, he was hoping to get into the engine room. The spaces were too small to stand up and had barely enough to crawl. If you got into trouble there was no turning back.

Mark moved down the tunnels for a very long time before dropping out into a small room, the lifesigns detector only showed him. He was reassured and managed to slip quietly into the corridor.

My target wasn't quite as far away. It was only a few hundred metres but would be heavily guarded. I took the C4 from our weapons and I was going to place it in the armory. I felt this was the best chance of causing large scale damage. I dropped from the crawl space and lowered myself into the room next to the armory. The dark light made it difficult but I looked around for a way into the next room, there was none. According to my lifesigns detector there were 3 Wraith in the corridor. They seemed to be patrolling as if they anticipated our attack. I jumped back into the crawl space and prepared to take on the Wraith. I threw a small piece of rubble that fell from the ceiling at the door.

Its loud sound resounded into the corridor and on the detector I could see the first Wraith enter the room. I rolled a grenade in and it blew. It successfully blew the Wraith to hell and the second and third headed my way.

They both entered, the first looked at the roof, checking for any signs of tampering. Clearly they knew I was here, the second looked around the room and it looked confused. I took my aim and fired the ancient weapon. The Wraith hit the floor and it died. I assumed it was near instant and I took my aim and dispatched the second Wraith. I ran into the corridor and into the armory.

Sara was almost at the destruct controls but she could see ten Wraith on the detector, they were defending the position, she couldn't get any closer. Not yet, she waited patiently for the sound of the alarms.

Mark entered the next corridor and looked again. He couldn't believe his luck. He was less than six hundred metres from the engine room and he started his walk to the next corridor.

I placed all the C4 and ran out of the room and back into the crawlspace. I headed back down the tube and half way down I hit the detonator. The explosion was deafening. Alarms began to sound but no Wraith seemed to be heading for the armory. I was worried. If they weren't checking out the explosion they would have had to have gone for the troublesome option. They were fortifying their positions.

Mark was in serious trouble.

Mark headed to the intersection between junctions, he heard the alarm and knew it was plain sailing from his position. He walked casually through into the next corridor without checking the detector.

He lifted it to his face to examine the situation and was met with an unpleasant sight.

6 dots heading towards him from in front of him, 4 from behind and one in the intersection crawlspace.

"Not like this, I am not going to die here" he said to himself. He pulled out his weapon and prepared to fight.

"I'm taking some of you with me!" he shouted.

Sara noticed that none of the Wraith had moved. She decided to pull back and find out what was going on. She dropped out at the closest intersection and prepared to drop back in.

She lowered her legs down and prepared to make her own distraction. She put her arms either side of the hatch and got ready to walk herself down. She slipped.

The noise was loud. Her leg made a snapping sound as it hit the ground and she looked at the detector, three of the Wraith turned from their post and moved towards her. She had intended to make a distraction. Not be it herself.

She tried to stand but collapsed back down. She began pulling herself towards the corner. She stopped there and looked at the detector. The Wraith were drawing near now.

"It can't end here" she said as she prepared to fight "I knew it wasn't going to be a good day!"

TO BE CONTINUED…


	6. Chapter 6

Part 6

Mark looked down once more; his small lifesigns detector confirmed his fear. All three dot groups were still heading his way. The largest group was very close now; they could be heard coming through the door. Mark took his aim and waited. He hit the first Wraith and just missed the second. He dived to the floor and without aiming fired another 4 shots. Two hit the mark and another Wraith went down. He saw the stunner shots hitting the wall behind him and he felt the adrenaline rush through his system as again he fired at the next hostile; again it fell. He was determined and it paid off he hit two more of the last three before being hit in the back with a stunner blast.

He woke up to the sight of the Wraith; there were 5 of them, all around him. He was the most scared he had ever been in his life and he couldn't move. He had heard rumours of the paralysis the Wraith weapons caused; it eventually wears off but not quick enough to stop the five Wraith from feeding on him.

He tried his best not to show that he was conscious. It seemed to work. For a while.

One of the Wraith turned to look at him and swung his hand back. The ecstatic look on his face was worrying. Could he, it, really take that much pleasure in killing him? The hand swung towards his body but there was a bright blinding flash and Wraith blood splashed onto the wall.

I fired again. "Get the hell away from him!" I shouted as I dispatched two more of the nightmarish beasts. There were only two left and I shot them both whilst they were in a state of confused shock.

"Sara? Sara? Are you there? We are placing the bomb, prepare to activate the destruct and head for the rings we'll meet you there" I said down the radio. I lifted Mark into the crawlspace and I hurried into the engine room and activated the explosives.

We got into the duct and made it to the intersection. I pushed the detonator and another one of the ships components went up in flames.

I heard my radio buzz; I lifted it to hear Sara talking "… Leg might be broken, the Wraith are closing in and I am unable to complete…" The radio went dead. I put Mark on the rings and activated them, sending him back to the jumper and I once again set off down the tight fit tunnels.

Sara looked down, the three Wraith were too close now. She looked for her weapon but couldn't find it. She must have dropped it in the duct. She cursed and grabbed the only weapon she had available. She found her standard issue combat knife and prepared for the oncoming Wraith.

The first one investigated the duct. She knew it wouldn't be easy. In fact that was an understatement; it was going to be damn impossible. The Wraith clearly expected the ducts to be the entrance we would try to use to get to the destruct. If she had taken the main route she would have been slaughtered.

The second Wraith to come around the corner saw her, he pulled out his stunner and she launched the knife. It hit the target and it fell silently; the knife buried deeply in its head. She couldn't get it back, it would be impossible for her now. She now had two Wraith heading her way and no weapon.

She saw the first and third come around the corner together and the last thing she saw was the flash of the stunner as it impacted her head.

I dropped in on the other side of the controls, hoping I could get to them and then to Sara. 8 of the Wraith were gone. I would just have to dispatch the last two. I dropped quietly into the control bay. I walked towards the first from behind and cut off its head using my knife.

I hoped to be able to get to the next but it was facing my way. I lifted the stunner and fired, the Wraith fell to the floor, stunned but still alive. As it fell I threw the stunner and the sharp end split it into two and I ran to the controls. I activated the destruct and the small counter began to read down in ancient.

I ran out of the bay but could see nothing on the detector or with my eyes, they must have gone somewhere. I needed a clue and I got one.

Sara's scream was massively loud; I ran as fast as I could, I knew what was happening she was being shared between the Wraith as a meal. Her scream stopped for a second and then started up again.

It was enough for me to find her, I saw the Wraith with the hand on her chest; she was in agony. I fired at the Wraith and he fell dead. She gasped and tears rolled down her face. I launched another two shots and took down more Wraith. Their shots flew over my shoulders and impacted the walls. I fired 5 more shots and all the Wraith fell dead.

I grabbed Sara and lifted her. "Can you walk?" I asked her, "No" she replied , "Look we have less than 2 minutes to get back to the rings if I have to lift you I will." I told her, I looked at my lifesigns detector; there was a solid group of Wraith heading toward the destruct control. "Can the Wraith turn off the destruct?" I asked her, "Oh no, they could if they have been here long enough. Sir give me your weapon and head for the jumper bay, it's the only way you'll get out in time. Drop me at the bay, I'll hold them off until the blast goes off" She said. I reluctantly agreed and hurriedly brought her to the bay. She took her weapon out and prepared to face the Wraith. I lifted my pack and headed out at a run.

I got to the jumper bay and pulled out my pack, I was going to blow the jumpers, there was about half a minute left. There were no explosives left, I was sure that I had 6 grenades and some C4 left. I realised that Sara's plan didn't just involve shooting. I ran into the jumper and tried to activate the engine. It wouldn't start up. There was no power! I ran out and into the next jumper. The self destruct began to go off as I powered up the ship. It lifted and I shot out of the inferno that was the bay. I tried to access the cloak but it failed.

I flew to where I left the other jumper and ringed over a mere three seconds before the Wraith destroyed the other jumper using a cruiser. As the ship began to explode my legacy kicked in. The engines powered up and it headed towards the cruisers, it hit all six of the cruisers before they could manoeuvre and then it finished its sequence and the ship blew to hell. I smiled and sped the ship towards Lucas; he must have seen what happened.

As we headed closer the Virtue appeared shadowing the moon. I couldn't wait to dock. We flew into the bay and we landed successfully and I walked onto the deck.

TO BE CONTINUED…


	7. Chapter 7

The halls of the virtue seemed identical to that of the other ship. I could still hear Sara's screams as the Wraith stole her life. Fed upon a member of my team.

I could have saved her! She could have made it to the jumper with me. We could have all got off that ship. Instead I left her there; I hoped she had been killed by the blast and not the Wraith. She deserved a quick death.

I saw the men running into the jumper and coming out with the still paralysed Mark. I wished I could talk to him, explain what happened but I wasn't ready for it.

Lucas approached me. "Well done" he congratulated me "You did it! The Wraith lost all of their acquired ships and we struck a significant blow to their numbers. You did well and what you did was the most brave and admirable act I have ever seen", "Lucas it was nothing" I said, "You and your team have saved millions, with our technology at their hands, they would be invulnerable. You did the best anyone could have asked for.", "No I didn't!" I snapped, "I lost Sara! She was fed upon and then she sacrificed herself and my other man is currently paralysed! Don't tell me that mission went well!", "I'm sorry, I didn't realise" Lucas said "I will heal your friend personally, believe me when I say I understand losing someone. Everyone outside this ship that I ever knew are dead.", "I'm sorry Lucas, I forgot what you guys had been through. I just need some time alone" I told him as I left the light hangar.

I climbed onto my bed. I tried to rest up before the big day tomorrow, I thought today was tough, tomorrow was going to be worse. We now had no fleet, only a large group of Puddle Jumpers to make two jumps. Two jumps into Wraith space, it was going to get ugly. We had less than a 10 chance of surviving.

The Puddle Jumper dived down into the planets atmosphere; we were flying for the supplies. It was going surprisingly well. We flew back up to the ship. As we drew near it seemed to transform. It shrunk down and became very dark. It was a hive ship! I pulled us away and called for Sara "Sara! Hit the weapons controls, launch everything we got at them!", she wasn't there, of course she wasn't. She was dead! I expected to see Mark when I turned to his chair. Instead there was a skeleton. I screamed and pulled back into the atmosphere. I felt a hand on my shoulder and I swung around. I saw it, the Wraith! I went for my gun. I couldn't find it anywhere.

The Wraith grabbed me by the neck and lifted me from my chair. I gasped and screamed as his hand impacted my chest. I felt the life being pulled from my body. I was dying.

He turned me and I saw that the ship was hurtling towards the ground at lightning speed. We impacted as I felt my death cries escape my throat. I was glad he would die with me.

I shot awake. I gasped and stood up. I needed to calm down. I ran around the deck for hours. I was hoping I could forget the dream; the skeleton, the Wraith and the Jumper impacting on the floor.

The alarm sounded across the ship before we shot off into the Virtues top speed. I was forced to abandon my run and head back to my room. The speed had begun to affect me, I now felt sick. I looked out of the window at the stars speeding past. It reminded me of the journey to Atlantis on the Daedalus; the feeling that my stomach was kilometres behind me and the fear of jumping into a battle worried me.

I wasn't ready for this.

I decided to go and see how Mark was. He had been healed but I hadn't been to see him yet. I arrived at his quarters. I knocked on the door and it swung open, Mark greeted me with a sombre face. I couldn't believe how upset he looked.

"I hear Sara didn't make it." Mark said, "That's right, she broke her legs and was caught by the Wraith. I killed them all but a swarm of them were heading towards the destruct controls. She told me to go and she told me she would hold them off. Once I got to the hangar I realised the supply of explosives I had saved were gone. I felt the ship shake as the explosives went off and then the destruct started up. I got out on a new jumper, beamed you out and got us back to the virtue." I informed him, "She saved us" he said, "Yeah, she was a hero" I told him "She was fed upon and I couldn't get her out in time. We had less than a minute to get from destruct controls to the jumper bay. I'm sorry. I messed up.", "I understand, thank you, you saved us both" he told me. I was reassured for a while and he invited me in for a drink.

Almost 3 hours later the loud intercom informed us we were less than 10 minutes from dropping out near the planet and everyone was to report to their duty stations.

We both hurried to our jumper completely armed. The plan was to raid a Wraith supply station. We wouldn't be leaving the jumper. We'd be trying to beam out the supplies from the air. Taking it in turn to change between raiding and covering the other jumpers we should only take around 20 minutes to gather enough fuel for the next jump.

We entered the jumper and I powered it up, Mark took the targeting controls, he would be in charge of aiming the teleportation sensors. We were lowered into the bay along with around 20 other jumpers and we prepared to be released at high speeds.

With a jolt the ship pulled out of extreme speed and released our anchorage. We flew out of the hangar and adjusted our trajectory to get us into the atmosphere.

As we reached the supply area we began our plan. The first 5 jumpers flew down and beamed up the first of their fuel containers and came around for their second pass. As they came back down the Wraith defences shot into action. The large gun emplacements that surrounded the supply area prevented us from going too low. We had to try and get them through the cloud of fire from miles up.

The hangars opened and the Darts flew up from them. Now came the difficult part. We swung towards them and let fly a drone. I saw it impact but the dart managed to stay in the air. Again I thought about it and fired. This time the dart erupted into a flaming inferno of heat and light.

The group of jumpers finished their third supply run and pulled up to cover the next five. They shot down at high speed and began to beam up their supplies. I managed to shoot down another dart but I noticed on the now active sensors that 2 of the first group jumpers were hit. If we kept loosing ships at the rate we were we would barely have enough to supply the ship. Another went up and I heard an order through the radio. The first two groups were breaking off and heading back for the Virtue, it made sense, there was no way we could manage to get away without all of that fuel. We needed at least another 6 Jumpers to get away with the fuel, 6 of 8.

The three ships left in our group were now severely outnumbered. I decided to clear the way for the group. I flew towards the first of the gun emplacements and launched twelve drones. It exploded and made a small clearing in the fire, revealing the fuel that was left. I pulled the ship around and headed for the next one. I prepared to fire when our jumper was clipped by a shot from a dart that managed to get behind us. Shocked I launched drones at the ship shadowing us, I managed to successfully hit it.

The group of ships that were on the collection pulled into a formation and headed back to the Virtue, it was our turn now.

I pulled us up and Mark began to attempt to aim using the sensors. He found a target and locked on. It materialised behind me and I pulled up to prepare for the second pass. The second jumper successfully managed to get alongside us and turned for the next pass. The third however was struck by three darts, we had to get one more ship through. I saw the three darts form up and once more come on the attack. Both of our jumpers successfully managed the second pass. We both geared up for the third.

We flew towards the zone but our jumper received a hit from the dart. It wouldn't be easy to keep us up if we were hit again. The jumper alongside of us was hit and it burst into flame and flew into the nearest dart. Surprisingly the whole group impacted the bringing wreck.

We now had to get back up to the ship with our third canister. Mark aimed and hit the beam button. Nothing happened.

Surprised and confused I prepared again, I knew that the chances were against us but I ordered him to try again. It failed again. The hit must have knocked out the system. Our radio began to speak again, it was Lucas "We need those canisters more than ever! One of the ship's cloak failed in high orbit and it was destroyed by the two hive-ships we are currently engaging."

Great, I thought, my day just got a little bit worse. Pointing the ship downwards I engaged our cloak. The cloak meant we couldn't use the beam to scoop up the fuel but it was our best chance to get to the floor. I swung through the gap in the firing zone. I landed us next to the main fuel depot and headed in.

"Mark, wait here and defend the ship. I am going to get a new ride and the rest of the fuel." I told him, "Sir, there are sixteen left, with ours that makes 18 there is no way we can get it all!" he objected, "Yes there is, just be ready to pilot the jumper out of here when I say." I said as I ran off into the hangar bay.

Mark ran out into the fuel depot and grabbed another one of the large fuel holders and grabbed it. He ran to the jumper and put it into the cargo area.

He closed the back and headed towards the cockpit. With the cloak on no one would know that the jumper was there, no one except for the Wraith that had found her way onto the ship.

I ran into the smallest hangar bay and saw a singular dart sitting on the bay. I dropped down towards the dart and down onto the bay floor. I jumped into the dart and saw that it had its own version of our lifesigns detector. It showed twelve what I assumed were Wraith lifesigns heading my way. I hurriedly tried to start up the dart. Unsure of how to control it, I found it hard but I managed to lift it up and into the air. I must have been seen, the doors began to close, I shot forward and out at top speed. I saw what I assumed was the dematerialiser controls and I hit them, successfully collecting the fuel that remained and pulling up. "Mark! Take off now!" I shouted down the radio as I saw 3 Wraith closing in on the jumper.

I saw no movement as I headed up off the ground and through the firing gap. I lifted up and flew out successfully. I hoped that they hadn't realised that this wasn't a Wraith piloted ship. As I came up I saw two jumpers heading back down through the atmosphere. They were obviously coming to rescue our jumper. They were destroying all the darts in their way and they were coming straight at me. The first had its weapon slots opened. I regretted having to do it but I fired and hit the weapons straight off of the ship. It didn't explode to my relief. It peeled off and cloaked. I wished I had the ability. I pulled directly up and towards the Virtue. The Wraith weren't engaging me but I knew the hardest part came now. I had to land on the Virtue.

I activated the communications device Lucas had given me and told them it was me. I wasn't sure whether they would acknowledge if they got the message. I assumed they hadn't when I saw the weapons turret turn towards me.

It was definitely not my day!

TO BE CONTINUED…


	8. Chapter 8

Mark walked into the cockpit and was struck back to the wall; his gun and radio fell to the floor. The blue skinned woman was walking towards him. Unable to run Mark tried to fight her off. She quickly overpowered him and lifted him by the neck. She brought her hand forward onto his chest and began to feed.

Mark was screaming, the pain was unbearable; he saw his life flash before him. He began to realise that this was it, he wasn't going to escape.

"Mark! Take off now!" came down the radio, shocked the Wraith turned and Mark pulled a knife from his jacket and lodged it firmly into the head of the Wraith. It loosened its grip and died.

Mark ran to the cockpit and began to fire up the engines. The jumper sprang to life and lifted from the floor, with the cloak still on Mark flew up and followed the dart.

As they reached orbit they saw the battle, jumpers and the Virtue were desperately trying to hold off the hive-ship long enough for us to get on board.

He saw the turret turn to aim at the dart.

Mark hit the radio and shouted down the line "Lucas the dart in front of me is friendly, do not fire!" he insisted.

I saw it, the turret was powering up, "I should have gone back to Atlantis" I said to myself.

The turret was ready to fire, I braced for the explosion but then nothing. The turret turned and fired on another dart.

As my dart pulled into the hangar of the virtue I surveyed the damage. The hangar was in flames and the door seemed to have blown off and I could see flashes of colour emanating from inside the ship. The Wraith must have gotten aboard.

Scrambling for the brakes I managed to stop the dart, it seemed to be very easily piloted but in future I was going to stick to jumpers. As I exited the dart I saw a damaged jumper become visible beside me. Could it be Mark? I sure hoped so.

As the hangar door opened I pulled up my gun, I saw the Wraith approaching the jumper whilst it was on the ground. I couldn't be sure it was him.

To my relief, Mark stepped out of the ship. It took me a second to recognise him, he looked different somehow, older. Realisation struck me as he drew near, he was fed on.

"Are you okay?" I asked him

"Yeah, but I never want to see one of those things ever again!" he told me

"Well this might not be the best time but I think the Virtue has been boarded. There appears to be shooting in this corridor" I informed him.

We both geared up the remainder of the ancient weapons and headed into the dull corridor.

"Lucas we are aboard with enough fuel to keep us going for longer than we thought. Get us the hell outta here!" I shouted down the radio.

I got no reply but the ship sped up and I saw the Wraith ships disappear.

Slowly we moved into the corridor. I saw dead bodies littering the area. Not wraith, Human. The Wraith were shooting to kill!

I saw the line of ancients who were trying desperately to get through, to reach the safe areas of the ship. They were losing ground and were being forced back.

I found the group commander. "What the hell is going on here?" I asked, "There are twenty Wraith through this gap and another ten assaulting the bridge. We need to get through and help Lucas!" he told me. "Okay, are there any other ways out of here? On the other ship there were crawlspaces. Surely the Virtue has them as well." I said. "Yes, we have them but once you go through you can't turn back, you'll be killed if you get into trouble and we can't risk any men to follow you." He told me, I could sense that he wasn't optimistic about this fight. "Doesn't this ship have a fighting force?" I asked. "Yes but they are stuck in the lower decks. An explosion destroyed the access ways." He told me "We are on our own and we are pilots not soldiers.". "Hold this line, we'll take the flank and try and cut them into two groups." I told him and Mark and I ran to the nearest tunnel and went back in.

I wasn't happy having to do this again, the last time we lost Sara, in fact each time I had encountered the Wraith I had either lost someone or someone had been fed on.

I hoped the pattern would change this time.

We crawled for a few minutes and I looked down. I could see the Wraith force. I quickly strapped an explosive to the hatch and kicked it down.

I moved just in time as the explosion hit the roof of the tunnel. I looked down and the Wraith were gone, most of them lying burnt on the floor. We both dropped down and took a look around before heading back to find the other ancients.

We found them and together we moved forward to the bridge. We entered through the rear entrance and found Lucas and 4 other officers hiding behind chairs and desks fighting a Wraith force. We entered guns firing and managed to push the Wraith back to the hangar bay. We clamped all the ships and deactivated the rear forcefield. We had successfully repelled them with minimal casualties.

Cleaning up the ship was a long and arduous task. We first took all the bodies, Wraith and human and burned them before releasing their ashes to space. We then began to repair the ship.

Our jumper inventory was down 30. For the next mission we'd have to collect 12 fuel canisters, enough for a few hours at high speed, enough to reach the other city of the ancients and enough to find us a ZPM.

Our jumper was fixed and we managed to pull all the fuel from the dart. The Dart was our secret weapon, our plan 2. If the jumpers were being slaughtered we would use the dart to swoop up everything there.

I was glad I wasn't chosen to fly the dart again. It wasn't fun the last time and this time we were going so deep into fortified Wraith space that I wasn't sure we'd be able to survive this next jump.

We were near to the Wraith's homeworld. I wasn't sure what to expect, the third planet of that system was a Wraith fuel depot and that was where we were going to raid. This time we were all going in cloaked, picking up the fuel and cloaking again before they could see us.

It seemed simple but like everything else on this little trip I knew it wouldn't be.

I heard Lucas over the radio once more. He informed the crew that there was less than two hours before we arrived at our next destination.

The fear built up in me once again but I knew it was nearly over. The struggle would be done once we had gotten the fuel. The Virtue would be cloaked as long as possible but we were running short on power and if we weren't fast enough they would be forced to decloak.

Still worried by the thought of entering the Wraith's home system, I felt worried, not for me but for Mark. After his previous encounter I didn't know whether he had it in him to fight off the Wraith. I hoped that it wouldn't come to it but strangely enough I got the feeling it would.

I tried once again to catch some sleep.

Swerving to avoid the fire from the turrets, I hit into an incoming dart. We stayed up but our cloak began to fail. I heard a loud scream from behind me and saw only a dead body, a skeleton. I heard a growling sound from behind me and I turned. There was a Wraith.

It lifted me up and fed on me. I looked out of the front window and we were heading towards the floor, I saw the ground heading towards us, heading at us at high speed.

I woke up again, no longer as scared. I wasn't sure how to take that. Was my fear of the Wraith disappearing? Or did I no longer care?

I heard the familiar call to stations and I headed towards my jumper. We were not in such a hurry this time. We knew we had the element of surprise and the fact that we would be invisible until we activated the transport sensors.

I entered the jumper and saw Mark was already there. He was piloting the jumper this time around. It was my turn to fire the transporters.

Worryingly Mark was enthusiastic, I was almost scared out of my skin. I felt every turn we made in the ship, especially at these speeds.

Swallowing, I prepared for our descent as our speed began to lower. I felt the jolt as we were once again released into the atmosphere.

The Wraith were already on alert. Their turrets were deployed, their ships were in the air and they had soldiers on the ground.

I hoped that was all they had.

TO BE CONTINUED…


	9. Chapter 9

The descent was easy, the dampers were working this time; I didn't feel the bumps as we came through the atmosphere. In fact I felt nothing until we levelled out. In a normal fighter we would have been killed by the gravity. It would have been so intense it would have crushed us into our chairs.

I was glad we weren't in a normal fighter.

Instead we were in a puddle jumper, an advanced spaceship built by the ancients and an all round sturdy ship. We were heading into a small fleet of darts and turrets, all of them ready to cut our small group of ships to threads. This would have to be carried out with surgical precision. In and out before they even knew we were here.

Nothing is ever that easy, knowing that I prepared to take a battering. I began the start up for the sensors. They had to come on at exactly the right time. Too soon and our cover would be blown, too late and I would have messed up our stealth approach totally and force us to come around for a second pass.

We were coming above it when I activated the sensors. The timing was impeccable and I locked on in less than 5 seconds and hit the transporters. Nothing happened and our sensors scrambled.

They must have been aware of us; the turrets came to life and began to cover the skies in shots. It was almost beautiful, beautiful but damn scary. They must have raised a shield and scrambled our sensors. Suddenly the whole fleet decloaked and our shields all dropped. Somehow this base had the ability to dampen our defensive capabilities. I saw three jumpers in front of me shoot straight towards us.

We flinched as the drones closed in. They seemed to be coming straight at us. Luckily they flew over the ship and hit two darts that were closing in on our jumper. Gratefully I repaid the debt and engaged a group of darts trailing them. I hit the first and closed in on the second, I fired again.

We turned to face the next one but as we came around it exploded into an inferno.

Another larger ship came around and fired a weapon at us. Mark told me to get into the rear compartment and shut the door whilst he tried to manoeuvre us away. I didn't even flinch. I jumped into the rear area and hit the doors.

The shake informed me that we had been hit and all of our lights went out. It must have been some kind of electrical jammer. Quickly the lights came back on. I tried my hardest to open the hatch. It was jammed shut. I grabbed the manual release valve and opened the door that way and ran to my post once more. I took the sensors and looked for a weak point in the shields. I couldn't find any but I saw the dart that hit us.

It exploded on our main screen but we stayed up. Somehow we stayed in the air! I thought about the ships weapons and I gained control of them. I concentrated on them and fired a couple of drones before realising we were heading in a straight pattern towards the shield.

I looked around. I saw that the other seat was occupied, but by a skeleton. What had happened to Mark? I looked and saw that he had a bloody hand shaped mark on his chest. I cursed and looked around. Standing there was a Wraith. It lifted me with its left hand and swung about its right.

The excruciating pain was unbearable, I couldn't hold in my cries and I screamed in utter agony. I felt the Wraith's animal like hate. He span me around and I could see the ground drawing ever closer.

I kicked out and hit the massive Wraith. He wasn't even phased.

We hit the shield and flew off. The Wraith hit the back wall; I flew towards him but luckily managed to get a hold of a chair. I leaned forwards and took my chance, I hit the door release and the Wraith dropped out of the back. I hit the button again.

The door closed slowly and I successfully stood up.

I had gained my bearings, I looked out once more, the ship had bounced off the shield and was now flying towards the dense forest to the edge of it.

I tried to pull back the control of the ship but it rapidly flew out of control. I hit the forestland with a hard crash and I hit the roof before hitting the floor again.

When I opened my eyes again I realised that I was on the ground on a Wraith occupied system. In panic I hit the door open control, it jerked down and I walked out of the jumper. When I looked around I saw that the ship had been wrecked. It was on fire and the front had collapsed in.

I looked for my gun but couldn't find it; I had to go back into the jumper. I walked in and saw the satchel of weapons sitting on the floor in the front compartment. I crawled to the floor and edged my way into the collapsed compartment.

I reached for the bag and successfully reached it. Turning to exit, I heard something from outside.

I froze in the spot. I would have some cover here so I waited.

Two Wraith walked in looked around. They were even scarier now, worse than ever before.

They looked around, they obviously realised I was alive; someone had to have survived to open the rear hatch.

I sighed as they left the jumper and I pulled myself out.

In the satchel I found 12 of the ancient explosives, a pistol like weapon and my P-90. I was running short on ammunition so I decided that I would have to save it.

The other thing I found in the small satchel was one of the Alteran's lifesigns detector. I looked down, the woodland was crawling with Wraith and they were all heading for the jumper. They surrounded me; they must have been making sure I couldn't escape before closing in the trap on me.

I quickly ran out and placed down the explosives a suitable distance from the jumper all around the ship. I was going to do as much damage as possible.

I ran back to the jumper and into the door. I pulled out the pistol weapon and prepared for the battle.

I should have stayed on Earth.

I saw the lifesigns drawing close; ready to face my end, I decided to take one last look at the sky.

I looked up and saw the battle in the air; the colour was awesome, I hoped the fuel was getting to the Virtue, I wasn't sure; there were a lot of explosions in the higher atmosphere.

The Virtue was just visible through the sky; it seemed to be dealing out a hell of a punishment to the Wraith that were in range.

I grabbed my radio, "Lucas, I have been hit, I am on the ground, my jumper is no longer flyable. Any help would be appreciated." I hoped the message got through.

I heard Darts overhead they weren't far from me, I guessed that they were protecting their silos. With the shield up I doubted the Jumpers were able to get much through the field, they would have to remodulate the beam to allow it to go through. That would take one pass and the second would be to pick up the cargo.

I decided I needed to shut down that shield; I picked an angle and got ready to go. I hoped that my plan would work.

I blew up the angle directly opposite to the direction I needed to go. It worked. All the Wraith turned to investigate and I managed to slip through their net. I looked at the lifesigns detector, they were all in the trap zone, I blew up the rest of the bombs, I saw six of the Wraith disappear.

I ran into the base. It was eerily blue and quiet. I crept along the corridors, I looked down, there were no Wraith on the sensors and I headed towards what I assumed was the generator.

I ran into the dark room and found the generator. I took aim and fired the last of my P-90 ammunition. It hit the mark and the power for the shield went down. I ran to the outside. I saw the Jumpers stealing away the fuel from the courtyard and headed for the outer door. I was about to walk out when I saw the Wraith soldiers patrolling the perimeter.

I turned back and headed out of the same door I had come in through. My aim was to get to an open air area where the jumpers where scanning. I ran out and once again heard the darts.

One of the darts appeared through the tree line. It activated the transport beam. I hid on the floor but was scooped up.

TO BE CONTINUED…


	10. Chapter 10

The descent was easy, the dampers were working this time; I didn't feel the bumps as we came through the atmosphere. In fact I felt nothing until we levelled out. In a normal fighter we would have been killed by the gravity. It would have been so intense it would have crushed us into our chairs.

I was glad we weren't in a normal fighter.

Instead we were in a puddle jumper, an advanced spaceship built by the ancients and an all round sturdy ship. We were heading into a small fleet of darts and turrets, all of them ready to cut our small group of ships to threads. This would have to be carried out with surgical precision. In and out before they even knew we were here.

Nothing is ever that easy, knowing that I prepared to take a battering. I began the start up for the sensors. They had to come on at exactly the right time. Too soon and our cover would be blown, too late and I would have messed up our stealth approach totally and force us to come around for a second pass.

We were coming above it when I activated the sensors. The timing was impeccable and I locked on in less than 5 seconds and hit the transporters. Nothing happened and our sensors scrambled.

They must have been aware of us; the turrets came to life and began to cover the skies in shots. It was almost beautiful, beautiful but damn scary. They must have raised a shield and scrambled our sensors. Suddenly the whole fleet decloaked and our shields all dropped. Somehow this base had the ability to dampen our defensive capabilities. I saw three jumpers in front of me shoot straight towards us.

We flinched as the drones closed in. They seemed to be coming straight at us. Luckily they flew over the ship and hit two darts that were closing in on our jumper. Gratefully I repaid the debt and engaged a group of darts trailing them. I hit the first and closed in on the second, I fired again.

We turned to face the next one but as we came around it exploded into an inferno.

Another larger ship came around and fired a weapon at us. Mark told me to get into the rear compartment and shut the door whilst he tried to manoeuvre us away. I didn't even flinch. I jumped into the rear area and hit the doors.

The shake informed me that we had been hit and all of our lights went out. It must have been some kind of electrical jammer. Quickly the lights came back on. I tried my hardest to open the hatch. It was jammed shut. I grabbed the manual release valve and opened the door that way and ran to my post once more. I took the sensors and looked for a weak point in the shields. I couldn't find any but I saw the dart that hit us.

It exploded on our main screen but we stayed up. Somehow we stayed in the air! I thought about the ships weapons and I gained control of them. I concentrated on them and fired a couple of drones before realising we were heading in a straight pattern towards the shield.

I looked around. I saw that the other seat was occupied, but by a skeleton. What had happened to Mark? I looked and saw that he had a bloody hand shaped mark on his chest. I cursed and looked around. Standing there was a Wraith. It lifted me with its left hand and swung about its right.

The excruciating pain was unbearable, I couldn't hold in my cries and I screamed in utter agony. I felt the Wraith's animal like hate. He span me around and I could see the ground drawing ever closer.

I kicked out and hit the massive Wraith. He wasn't even phased.

We hit the shield and flew off. The Wraith hit the back wall; I flew towards him but luckily managed to get a hold of a chair. I leaned forwards and took my chance, I hit the door release and the Wraith dropped out of the back. I hit the button again.

The door closed slowly and I successfully stood up.

I had gained my bearings, I looked out once more, the ship had bounced off the shield and was now flying towards the dense forest to the edge of it.

I tried to pull back the control of the ship but it rapidly flew out of control. I hit the forestland with a hard crash and I hit the roof before hitting the floor again.

When I opened my eyes again I realised that I was on the ground on a Wraith occupied system. In panic I hit the door open control, it jerked down and I walked out of the jumper. When I looked around I saw that the ship had been wrecked. It was on fire and the front had collapsed in.

I looked for my gun but couldn't find it; I had to go back into the jumper. I walked in and saw the satchel of weapons sitting on the floor in the front compartment. I crawled to the floor and edged my way into the collapsed compartment.

I reached for the bag and successfully reached it. Turning to exit, I heard something from outside.

I froze in the spot. I would have some cover here so I waited.

Two Wraith walked in looked around. They were even scarier now, worse than ever before.

They looked around, they obviously realised I was alive; someone had to have survived to open the rear hatch.

I sighed as they left the jumper and I pulled myself out.

In the satchel I found 12 of the ancient explosives, a pistol like weapon and my P-90. I was running short on ammunition so I decided that I would have to save it.

The other thing I found in the small satchel was one of the Alteran's lifesigns detector. I looked down, the woodland was crawling with Wraith and they were all heading for the jumper. They surrounded me; they must have been making sure I couldn't escape before closing in the trap on me.

I quickly ran out and placed down the explosives a suitable distance from the jumper all around the ship. I was going to do as much damage as possible.

I ran back to the jumper and into the door. I pulled out the pistol weapon and prepared for the battle.

I should have stayed on Earth.

I saw the lifesigns drawing close; ready to face my end, I decided to take one last look at the sky.

I looked up and saw the battle in the air; the colour was awesome, I hoped the fuel was getting to the Virtue, I wasn't sure; there were a lot of explosions in the higher atmosphere.

The Virtue was just visible through the sky; it seemed to be dealing out a hell of a punishment to the Wraith that were in range.

I grabbed my radio, "Lucas, I have been hit, I am on the ground, my jumper is no longer flyable. Any help would be appreciated." I hoped the message got through.

I heard Darts overhead they weren't far from me, I guessed that they were protecting their silos. With the shield up I doubted the Jumpers were able to get much through the field, they would have to remodulate the beam to allow it to go through. That would take one pass and the second would be to pick up the cargo.

I decided I needed to shut down that shield; I picked an angle and got ready to go. I hoped that my plan would work.

I blew up the angle directly opposite to the direction I needed to go. It worked. All the Wraith turned to investigate and I managed to slip through their net. I looked at the lifesigns detector, they were all in the trap zone, I blew up the rest of the bombs, I saw six of the Wraith disappear.

I ran into the base. It was eerily blue and quiet. I crept along the corridors, I looked down, there were no Wraith on the sensors and I headed towards what I assumed was the generator.

I ran into the dark room and found the generator. I took aim and fired the last of my P-90 ammunition. It hit the mark and the power for the shield went down. I ran to the outside. I saw the Jumpers stealing away the fuel from the courtyard and headed for the outer door. I was about to walk out when I saw the Wraith soldiers patrolling the perimeter.

I turned back and headed out of the same door I had come in through. My aim was to get to an open air area where the jumpers where scanning. I ran out and once again heard the darts.

One of the darts appeared through the tree line. It activated the transport beam. I hid on the floor but was scooped up.

TO BE CONTINUED…


	11. Chapter 11

I had been beamed up; the dart had managed to capture me. The Wraith cell I found myself in was large and empty; I seemed to have been the only member of the attack squad that had been captured. At least I would be the only one to face the horrific death that was laid out for me.

The cell door was of a strange construction; it was almost like a spiders web, intricately spun across the doorway but when I tried to break it, it seemed as strong as steel.

I felt the ship jolt heavily. The Virtue was obviously holding it's own.

Feeling for my weapon, I realised I was disarmed and things had just gotten worse; from the end of the hallway I could hear a Wraith patrol coming towards the cell. I needed a plan.

The door seemed to unwrap and unfold, leaving the doorway clear. Two nightmarish Wraith entered and walked into the centre of the cell.

They were clearly bemused as to where I was. I looked down at them and noticed they were not armed. Could I successfully escape? If I waited much longer they would leave and lock the door once more. I couldn't allow myself to rot in this cell.

Lucas was relying on me to survive; pilots were a commodity we were running short of and my Jumper would cost us greatly.

Each pilot we lost would cost us 3 fuel containers and if we lost 6 Jumper's worth of fuel we would be forced to make another stop. That would kill us.

I saw the first Wraith turn towards the door and walk out. Soon after the other turned, expecting her to leave the cell, I was shocked when she looked directly above her and saw me.

She shouted to the other Wraith who quickly returned to the cell.

"You cannot stay there" she seemed to hiss at me

"I'd rather stay here than be there with you" I replied

She hissed once more and revealed a stunner.

I cursed and the next thing I knew a blue light had erupted in my face and I fell to the floor.

My eyes opened to reveal yet another Wraith room. It was strange; there was a table in the centre that was filled with human food. I was sure the Wraith didn't eat human food so who was it for.

I remembered something I had read back on Earth. It was the mission report filed by Colonel Shepperd concerning the death of Colonel Sumner. It reported a room similar to this where the Wraith fed up the humans they were going to feed upon to make them stronger.

I was resolute; they weren't going to get the pleasure from me. I was ready to face the music but I wasn't going to give them a second of satisfaction from it.

I felt the ship rocking severely now. The Virtue must have turned its full attention to this Hive-ship. I hoped that the Hive-Ship would explode before the Wraith remembered me. I would rather suffocate than to feed my enemy.

I heard the unique noise that signalled a door opening. I swallowed heavily, the fear that had gone from my mind had returned. I was no longer fearless.

The female Wraith that had seen me entered the room. Her sadistic smile revealed her intentions. She meant to torture me and then feed.

Again the ship rocked. This time I could hear the sound that signalled a hull breach not far from me. My radio buzzed to life.

"Please reply" came Lucas's voice

"I'm here Lucas, but I won't be for long. A Wraith is here with me. I am aboard the Hive-ship!"

"I see you on our sensors" Lucas replied

"Okay don't suppose you can beam me out?" I asked hopefully

"I'm afraid not, the shielding is still up around your area. We will try and hit the generator but I will…" The radio cut out.

The Wraith was now so close to me now. I looked up and saw her swing her hand. I flew across the room. She hadn't attempted to feed. She had thrown me.

Again the ship shook. I could feel it now more than ever. Lucas was clearly doing his best to disable the shield but what was the end of his transmission. There was something else up his sleeve.

Again the room violently moved. Things from the table crashed to the floor and the Wraith almost fell. I could hear lasers impacting; not on the hull but in the hallway. Was Lucas trying to shoot through the ship?

The Wraith seemed hurried now; she knew that the ship was in trouble. I felt myself lifted up by the collar. I kicked out in a futile effort. She actually seemed affected.

I felt the impact of her hand on my chest and I expected to feel the drain of my life being sucked out of my body but instead I saw a flash and I was dropped.

Where the Wraith stood previously were two ancients, fully armoured and ready to fight through the Wraith to get me. This was Lucas's second plan.

They helped me up and walked me out of the corridor. Down the hall and into a large hangar bay, the bay was an inferno. There seemed to be no path to any of the darts on the other side of the bay.

I was unsure as to how we could escape yet the Alterans seemed certain of where they were going. They dragged me to a small open area that seemed to have been safe from the ravaging flames.

They dragged me up and I could see the inside of a Jumper. They had flown in and parked the Jumper right next to the hole in the hangar.

We flew out once more and I could see the firefight in the air. The Hive-ship was heavily battered but it had reinforcements; there were two other Hive-ships just in visual range. They were not yet in firing range but they would be soon. I saw two Jumpers entering the Virtue hangar. They were unloading fuel.

The Virtue was in bad shape too. It was sending out a distress call and the hull was covered in explosions. There was little chance of surviving much longer. As we left the Hive-Ship we saw the Virtue fire a lucky shot and the Hive-Ship exploded.

We rode the explosion wave to hide us from the other ships sensors. We managed to sail into the Virtues bay. Lucas's voice came through the speakers. He told us we were in no condition to go into controlled hyperspace. We were going to jump away in a random direction.

I ran as fast as I could in my current weakened condition. I needed to find Lucas.

I ran into the elevation system and hit the button for the command centre. The elevator shot up at extreme speeds.

I felt a massive explosion above me and the lift began to fall at even greater speed. We hit the bottom and I collapsed to the floor. The heat I felt from above me was unbearable. The shaft was on fire.

TO BE CONTINUED…


	12. Chapter 12

I awoke in darkness; I couldn't tell what had happened to me. Every time I tried to move I felt weighed down; this opened two possibilities; one, there was a heavy object on me or two, the artificial gravity had malfunctioned. Personally I preferred the latter option, seemed slightly safer to me.

Slowly I began to come around until I was fully aware of my surroundings. I soon realised that there was nothing laid over me. I let out a sigh of relief before attempting to stand.

It was a great strain but I managed to pull myself up on the lift panel to the controls. I hit one of the buttons on the console and called for help before falling once more to the floor. I just hoped someone had heard my call.

The temperature seemed unbelievably high; I was sweating more than I had ever before.

I went over what I knew. I had been rescued from a Wraith Hive-Ship and brought back to the Virtue where I had gotten into a lift. There was a loud snapping sound and I felt the lift plummet, the Virtue was in a firefight and the lift was very warm.

I began to bring things together.

Fire, I thought, the lift shaft is on fire! Once more I pulled myself to the panel, "Help me please!" I shouted "I'm stuck in the lift; I think the shaft is on fire and the gravity is malfunctioning. Please, if anyone can hear this help me!"

The alarm was distant but I could hear it, Lucas had ordered all the jumpers to the ship. I got the feeling that I would soon find myself in big trouble.

From above I could hear the banging on the metal doors, "Hello?" someone shouted down, "Down here!" I shouted with all my might. The door exploded into a burst of light then fell and impacted the lift roof deep below. "Are you okay?" the voice asked me, "I'm fine, listen carefully, restore the normal artificial gravity to this lift and I can get out."

Footsteps revealed the man had both heard and understood me. The ship shook more violently this time; clearly the Wraith were almost penetrating the hull. I hoped the man would get the gravity fixed in time. The alarm had stopped sounding; meaning the ship had started the countdown to hyperspace.

There were another series of violent movements then I felt the lift lighten, I lifted myself up and began shooting the roof. Luckily the fire had weakened it and a section collapsed.

I jumped as high as I possibly could and managed to get a hold on the roof that was left. Well aware it would be weakened, I pulled myself up as swiftly as possible. The ancients lifts weren't easy to escape from, they had no ropes you could cut or pulleys you could climb; just a shaft.

Soon the man returned with a long piece of rope, seemed they weren't too advanced for that. He lowered it to me and I used it to climb the wall.

I hit the shaft door close from the corridor and it slammed shut as we entered hyperspace.

We had escaped but how far were we going, I was certain that we didn't collect enough fuel to make it to our destination and we couldn't attempt another assault.


	13. Chapter 13

The Virtue had clearly taken more damage than we had first believed, she was lurching uncontrollably as we travelled, I decided that since we clearly couldn't get to Lucas's other city with the small amounts of fuel we brought onto the ship, I should go and find Lucas.

As I headed towards the bridge I noticed that almost every second corridor was an inferno. All of the Wraith attacks seemed to have been focused upon the bridge and the higher decks. The closer I got, the more the fear grew inside of me. I hoped that Lucas was all right; without him the crew would be distraught, uncontrollable. I fought my way through the damage and up onto the top deck, the flame was unbearable at this point.

The fire was lashing out at anything that moved, it saw me and reared its ugly head. I managed to dive into a shaft and escape the flames. I waited a little while then jumped back into the corridor.

The last door before the bridge entrance was badly burnt on the outside, I hoped the inside had kept its integrity. I could hear nothing from the inside. I pulled my gun from the holster and laid twenty bullets into the right hand side. It fell out of the frame when I kicked at it.

Half expecting a backlash of flame, I dived to the floor. Nothing appeared, cautiously I found myself leaning in. Electrical sparks flew across the room; the ancients were lain down all over the room, most of them clearly dead.

In the centre of the room I saw the area in which Lucas's chair had once been; it was now replaced by an iron girder.

I ran to the pole and found Lucas, my fears were confirmed; he was impaled.

"Lucas!" I shouted to him, he was still alive but he was slipping away, "Lucas!" I shouted once more. His eyes opened slightly, "We've turned around…" he told me "We have enough fuel to get you close to Atlantis". Atlantis, I had been away from there for so long now, would they accept me back? After all, a lot can happen in the space of a few months.

"Lucas, I have to get you to the medical bay" I said, choking on my words. "No time" he said to me, he began to re-close his eyes. I tried my best to keep him awake, "Take over" he commanded me "I can't get you to Atlantis directly… … We won't survive coming out of hyperspace, you need to hit the engines before we leave, you can't time it wrong… If you are too fast you'll fly uncontrollably into the hyperspace energy and vapourise… I can get you within Puddle Jumper distance; you have to get the others to Atlantis. Tell them my last wish was for them to help you get home."

His eyes closed and wouldn't reopen. I ran to the door and noticed the fires had spread. Remembering the ship schematics, I ran to Lucas's office. Just outside there was one of the transporters; I could take it to the jumper bay.

Before leaving his office I activated the intercom system, "Friends, Commander Lucas has just died, he informed me that he ordered the Virtue to head in the general direction of Atlantis, we can't get there in the Virtue. So I need you all to get to the Jumpers as soon as possible. Atlantis will take you all in, we will shelter you and in return you can assist us, there is a lot we need to learn about your city. The Virtue may fall but we owe it to Lucas to survive, together. So all of you get to the Jumper bay. If you don't get there you will die with the Virtue."

Safe in the knowledge that the crew knew exactly what to do I began shooting through the wall. The hyperspace alarm began to sound once more, I had little time. As rapidly as I could, I fired on the wall. It was beginning to bend but not fast enough. I ran back onto the bridge and took another gun from one of the bodies laid around.

The combined strength of the guns managed to form a hole in the wall. I kicked my way through and into the corridor. The flame was spreading towards me; I ran and found the transporter. The door opened as I approached. As I walked in the flame shot towards me, I hit the Jumper bay and the flame ripped into the transporter.

I materialised on the Jumper deck; the flame had caught me. The unbearable pain was almost as great as that of the Wraith feeding process.

My legs had been burnt, burnt badly. Luckily the rest of me was okay.

Somebody saw me and ran to assist. She lifted me into a Jumper and shut the door. The small ship was packed to the brim, there was little room to move and I was sure that it would affect manoeuvrability but nonetheless I was glad that I had made it on board.

The pilot activated the holster controls and the Jumper lowered; ready to release.

I looked to the side and noticed that the ship on our left was releasing its clamps. It flew out whilst the Virtue was in hyperspace. It impacted the hyperspace energy and exploded.

Hoping that we wouldn't explode caught me in a web of fear. My legs still felt like they were burning. My injuries were bad I knew that, I was well aware I might never be able to walk again.

I felt the jolt of hyperspace coming to an end followed by the jolt of the clamps releasing.

We flew out at the fastest speed I had ever experienced.

TO BE CONTINUED…


	14. Chapter 14

Shooting out of the hangar bay came us and three other Jumpers. We were heading straight towards the energy wall of hyperspace. I turned my head and closed my eyes; this was it.

I almost flew out of my seat but we didn't explode. Instead we found ourselves looking into the black of space. The pilot turned the jumper around to face the Virtue; it began to fall apart and explode. The bridge crushed and broke off, followed by a series of small explosions across the ship, fire bursting out of the ship into the vacuum of space and one huge explosion emanating from the engines. Soon the Virtue was gone, replaced by a mass of debris, lifeless wreckage where the most advanced piece of technology I had ever seen had been only seconds before.

The Jumper turned away from the area where the Virtue had been and activated its sensors, most of the Jumpers made it out. Only two seemed to have mistimed their exits.

We scanned for the nearest planet we could find and set the quickest course to the planet. The only planet in range we could find, that we could reach safely, was not one I knew of but I hoped it had a Stargate; if the planet held a gate; I could dial Atlantis and safely bring all of the Alterans to a new home.

The constant struggle these people had lived, we had lived, was soon to be over. Dr. Weir would gladly take them in; I was sure of it.

After a few hours the Jumpers entered the atmosphere, they split off and began a search for the gate. The planet was green, beautiful, untouched to the eye. I hoped that the perfection this planet sported was not an indication of the lack of the Stargate.

We continued to search for hours and hours before we decided to meet back to rest. All of the Jumpers converged on an opening in the woodland that seemed to cover most of the planet. Fifty Alterans; all that was left now of the Ancient ones before they ascended.

We were quiet as anything, none of us felt able to talk although all of us wanted to. Everything that had happened had changed us, made us closer while at the same time made us more apart. I felt no relationship with any of the crew, none of them closer now than when I first joined the crew. Only Lucas ever really accepted me and he was gone now.

We ate and took it in turns to sleep, sleep was a commodity that we were not used to and was gladly accepted. Although I only slept for a few hours it felt like a whole days worth to me. I had missed the comforts I was so used to at home and on Atlantis.

I awoke to a beautiful night, the night was clear and the stars could be seen as brightly as the midday sun, each as beautiful as the last, the moon was large and yet even on this great night something seemed wrong. Eternal vigilance, I thought to myself.

Something definitely bugged me. Most of the Alterans were asleep; they had split into pockets, on the grounds of which Jumper they had been in.

I felt for my weapon, I found it in its holster and attempted to remove it. I couldn't at first but when I pulled as hard as I could it came out from its, what I could only assume was similar to leather, straps.

The gun was misshapen. Knowing I couldn't fire it I pulled myself across the ground to our Jumper. I now felt nothing on my legs; they were well and truly useless to me. One of the medical attendants from the Virtue had informed me that there may be a chance to help me using a piece of Ancient technology, hopefully available in Atlantis.

The Jumper lit up as I entered and I opened the weapons locker. I found myself an automatic ancient weapon and went to activate the sensor systems when I heard loud screams. As quickly as I could, I headed back out to the camp; everyone from our Jumper was now awake and they were all present and accounted for but there was no sign of two of the other groups of Ancients. I re-entered the Jumper with two other ancients and they lifted me into the pilot seat.

The other Ancients armed themselves and went to search for answers to what had happened. Those of us who had been injured or would be liabilities to the others would be in the air, searching the rest of the planet. In the hope to find a Stargate.

I pulled the Jumper up and just inside the atmosphere. We then sped off in another direction.

After twenty minutes of searching the others contacted us; they had found a series of caves near to where the others had stayed. They were exploring them at that moment.

We had almost searched half the planet when I saw it; the gate. It was well hidden and most certainly not used often.

"We have found the gate" I informed the others over the radio, "We are heading back to you. Don't wait too long before coming back to the clearing, I don't like this place."

I received confirmation and was told that there was one last tunnel not explored. They were intending on checking it out then heading back.

Almost a hundred feet from the caves they had found I noticed something from the air. I pulled the Jumper down and went to investigate. The others carried me out of the Jumper and to the area that had caught my attention.

I, to my horror, was right. Lain against a tree was a pile of the bodies of the Ancients. The doctor, who had been with me in the Jumper went to check on them.

"Get back to the Jumper!" He shouted to me, as he moved away I noticed what had worried him. As fast as they could they carried me back to the ship and we took off.

"Get back to your Jumpers!" I shouted across the radio, "Don't worry" came the reply, "We are nearly finished here.", "Listen to me" I shouted at them, "The planet is infested with Wraith and their bug origins, get out of the caves!"

Our flyby took us over the cave entrance and I saw movement. Not the Ancients but Wraith. A large Wraith group was headed into the caves.

The radio came to life for us to hear the screams followed by a final order by the commander of the cave group. "Get out of here, we have been overpowered. The Wraith are wiping us out. Just do us one favour; fire the Jumpers full weapons at the cave, make sure those bastards don't get the satisfaction of feeding upon us"

Without hesitation I fired a full array of drones into the cave. It exploded and then collapsed upon itself. I raised the Jumper and headed for the Stargate.

Our top speed was very fast but Jumpers could never out run a Wraith dart and unfortunately we found ourselves tailed by two of them.

I thought about drones but nothing happened, they must have finally been depleted. The darts opened fire upon us and the Jumper began to take damage. They were sturdy craft but were never meant to be put through so much, so fast.

On the sensors the gate seemed so close, yet we didn't stand much chance of making it there. I activated the on ship DHD and dialled Atlantis. From the front pocket of my shirt I removed my GDO, it had been a reminder of my past, a relic to me but now, once more it was to be used.

The gate opened and was just coming into view when our ship began to fall apart. I decided that I had to retract the drive pods then to protect from failure. We began sailing towards the gate without a thought of anything else.

Suddenly a bright flash occurred from behind us. One of the Darts had exploded, followed by the second.

I then remembered the second Jumper. It had been out of contact for so long, I wondered how much they understood.

"Line up and head through the gate" I said as I pulled away from our approach. I typed in the GDO code and opened the door for them.

I activated my radio and contacted Atlantis, "Atlantis, no time to explain but I am sending through a Jumper containing living, breathing Ancients, get them into the Jumper bay within two minutes because after that time I will be coming through in my Jumper."

The first Jumper headed through the gate and into the safety of Atlantis. I began my silent countdown.

I had reached one minute fifteen seconds when more Wraith ships appeared on our sensors. "Weir is it safe for me to come through yet? I have Wraith closing on our position!" I requested down the radio. "Give us twenty seconds" came Weir's reply.

The first shot was fired after eight seconds and by fifteen we were in deep trouble, I had to begin my approach, we sped forward and through the gate by seventeen.

Luckily we soon found ourselves on the other side, just below the Jumper being slowly lifted up into a bay. The gate shut down behind us and I saw Dr. Weir heading down the stairs that had greeted me everytime I had come through the gate.

I sighed as I was lifted out of the Jumper and to the nearest transporter.

The Doctor from The Virtue hadn't lied, in Atlantis there was a machine designed to repair the human body. Originally used to infuse the gene into the Alterans that protected their technology from the Wraith, it managed to rebuild and repair my legs and within the space of a week I found myself walking once more.

As soon as we were rested and had eaten I was told to report to my debriefing.

As I walked down the fresh corridors I found myself thinking, this one isn't going to be easy to explain…

THE END


	15. Authors Note

I finally finished, thanks to all who read, all I ask is that you please comment, this is my first story…


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